BY NO MEANS DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1921, Page 3

BY NO MEANS DEAD.

BOOKMAKERS ACTIVE.

FIGHTING FUND AND ORGANISER AT £lOOO SALARY.

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT.

Says yesterday’s Wellington Times

It has been asserted that in New Zealand the bookmaker is dead. The occupation has been declared illegal, and consequently those’who were went to “lay the odds” have perforce gone out of business. The bag, the book, and the pencil have (it is claimed) b©en discarded, and other pursuits—maynap more strenuous, though not so remunerative—have claimed the attention of the erstwhile metallicians. So it is said.

But rumour, credited with being a lying jade, is persistent in the assertion that the bookmakers have not gone out of business—that they have been neither scotched nor killed. On the contrary, it is claimed that they are very much alive and kicking:—so much so that they have recently held a meeting and decided to form a properly constituted Bookmakers’ Association for the protection of their mutual interests, and with the object of ultimately having removed the legislation restrictions now placed upon the prosecution of their calling.

It is also said that there has been an agreement to establish a fighting fund of no less than £5OOO, which is to be'utilised to secure the desired legislative changes. It is also alleged that to efficiently and completely carry out the propaganda work a Dominion has been appointed at a salary or £lOOO per annum, and that a gentleman at one time closely associated with the Reform Party and with the various “reforms” it has effected, has been chosen for the position. It is further said there were no fewer than twenty applications for the appointment; that the number was first reduced to ten; and that eventually the choice fell on the one-time political propagandist.

Presumably it is intended to seek the interest and co-operation of the New Zealand public in, securing alterations in the law so that the restrictions and prohibitions to which such strong exception has been taken should be respectively relaxed and removed. A deputation will possibly interview the Acting-Prime Minister on the subject and ask that rescinding legislation be introduced, and if no Government measure be forthcoming, the presumption is that a private member will be induced to introduce a bill having for its purpose the legal rehabilitation of a section o-f the community which has been for years associated with the turf in many lands)

Future developments in the direction indicated should be decidedly interesting;